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While the film was made for slightly over $800,000, it earned $2,600,00 in domestic rentals – My Blog

Briley | John Wayne and Big Jim McLain (1952): The Duke’s Cold War Legacy John Wayne and Big Jim McLain (1952): The Duke’s Cold War Legacy Ron Briley Critic Bosley Crowther of the New York Times described Big Jim McLain (1952), in whichWestern star John Wayne portrays an investigator for the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities (HUAC) cleaning up communist subversion in prestatehood Hawaii, as an unsatisfactory mixing of”cheap fiction with a contemporary crisis in American life.” He concluded, “No one deserves credit for this picture,” and most reviewers agreed. Time found the action “implausible and fumblingly filmed,” whileNewsweekbelieved the weak melodrama was saved by a “certain amount of adroit comedy players.”

On the other hand, Kay Proctor of the Los Angeles Examiner extolled Big Jim McLain as a “walloping good movie,” alerting John Wayne viewers to the dangers of the communist peril. In the final court of public opinion, Big Jim McLain was a box office success, ranking twenty-seventh on Variety’s list of top-grossing films for 1952. While the film was made for slightly over $800,000, it earned $2,600,00 in domestic rentals during its 1952 release ‘ Although McLain was commercially successful, it is not usually perceived as a film withstanding the test of time. It is usually described as a period piece, representative of the anticommunist film genre, in whichfilmmakers, responding to Congressional inquiries regarding communist influence within the Hollywood community, attempted to demonstrate their Americanism by bashing communism and communists as a clear and present dangertoAmerican security andprinciples. Accordingly, one mightbe prone to dismiss McLain as simply another historical Hollywood relic, such as / Was a Communistfor the FBI (1951) or My Son John (1952), of America’s paranoid 1950s response to communism and the ColdWar. Most anticommunist films, however, did not feature a national icon such as Wayne, who in 1995, although deceased for sixteen years, was selected by Americans in a Lou Harris poll as their favorite movie star.2 Also, a closer screening ofMcLain indicates that many of the political views are almost identical to those espoused in Wayne’s controversial The GreenBerets (1968), another moneymaking film panned by reviewers. Wayne’s simplistic solutions to complex problems, exemplified by Jim McLain punching communists in the mouth, are still appealing to American audiences , whether they are screening old Wayne films or more currentmanifestations oftheWayne persona with ClintEastwood, Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo, or Chuck Norris. Many young boys growing up in the 1950s wanted to be like Big Jim McLain or Sergeant Stryker (Sands oflwo Jima), but found the black and white values and cinema ofWayne to be oflittle value when confrontedwiththe realities ofVietnam.
3 We may ignore the legacy ofBigJimMcLain at our own children’s peril. Critics often found fault with Wayne and his films, but with such hits as Stagecoach (1939), RedRiver (1948), Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), and Rio Grande (1950) the actor’s reputationwas firmly established. In 1952, the Motion Picture Herald poll ofAmerican theater owners and film exhibitors selected Wayne, for the second consecutive year, as the nation’s number one box-office attraction . The reason for the actor’s popularity , according to a Time cover story, was his sincerity, featuring a trademark of “manly incorruptibility” in which virtue “must face evil in single combat, to triumph or bite the dust.”
4 These qualities well describe the conflictbetweenBig JimMcLain and his communist protagonists. Directed by Edward Ludwig and based upon a screenplay by Wayne’s friend James Edward Grant, Big Jim McLain was the first film product of an independent production company formed by Wayne and business associate Robert Fellows as part ofa multipicture arrangement with Warner Brothers.5 Following the credits , featuring patriotic music and the question “How Stands the Union?” from Stephen Vincent Benet’s The Devil and Daniel Webster, the film begins with a voice-over describing the activities of HUAC. Shot in a documentary fashion, the Congressmen ofthe Committee are portrayed as heroes, who, though vilified by the uninformed or misled, are protecting the nation by uncovering communist subversion.6 The narrator states that anyone who continued to be a communist after 1945 was guilty of high treason. Committee members inquire…

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She hasn’t cut her hairs for 20years, even though her husband begged her to. Then, one day, she finally gave up and cut her hair! Better sit down before you see what this woman looks like today

Whether it’s the boring hairstyle we’ve had for years or the clothes we got tired of, a little change always makes us feel better.

Rosa Ramirez, an American woman, saw that it was time for a change after 25 years of not getting her hair cut.

Because her hair was so long, she sometimes walked on it.

Over the years, her husband had tried to get her to change her hairstyle, but she was always proud of her 1.5-meter-long hair.

She finally had enough and went to the hairdresser with some friends after 25 years of hard work. She had her hair cut to her shoulders.

The owner of the hair salon, Eda Motchka, told WXYZ-TV Detroit, “We love seeing different things done on customers, different styles. We meet a lot, and I always see her the same way.”

But she did what she did for a reason. Locks of Love is a nonprofit that makes wigs for kids whose hair has been lost to cancer. Rosa sent 4 feet of her hair to them.

Ramirez said, “I think it would make someone’s day who is sick a little better.”

Rosa’s change over time is very interesting to watch. Watch how it works in the video below.

 

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Father’s Hilarious Reaction To His Partner Giving Birth Goes Viral

A woman’s experience during childbirth is unparalleled. It’s the roller coaster ride between euphoria and terror. What the mother is going through is unbearable.

The experience can be both heartwarming and emotionally taxing on the father.

Pictures shot during the birth of their third child by the parents who took them have gone viral.

The emotional ups and downs of a new baby’s arrival were beautifully depicted in the new dad’s expressions.

A Dad Welcomes the Third Child Into the World

The modern norm is for the father to be present during the birth of his child.

This wasn’t always the case, though, which is kind of funny.

Traditionally, men weren’t allowed in the delivery room with their pregnant wives. Instead of a doting new father, these moms had a team of midwives to lean on.

They were very knowledgeable in the field of giving birth. It was considered rude for the father to be in the same room as his distraught wife, no matter how happy he was for her.

They would, instead, wait tensely in the hall. The midwife would then come out to announce that a baby boy or girl had been born healthy.

Men now are held to the same standards as they were centuries before.

They should do anything they can to make their wife feel at ease during childbirth, even if that means offering a hand for her to crush.

The third kid of two parents was born in Arkansas. Brett Sillis and his partner Amanda Renee’ have become Internet celebrities after posting birth photos to Instagram.

Brett, the new father, had some priceless emotions when he looked over to see his baby being born.

Amanda thought his disgusted expression funny rather than offensive.

She claimed she had been so preoccupied with the ordeal that the couple didn’t notice the images until they returned to their room.

“We didn’t even look at them until I got back into the room, and I was like ‘I have to post these,’” she said.

The New Parents Have Arrived!

The new dad and mom are both doing great after giving birth.

It’s safe to infer that this is especially true with Brett based on the photographic evidence. After receiving the all-clear from the pediatrician, they brought their new daughter home.

Amanda’s discharge from the hospital brought her great joy.

Anyone who has spent any significant amount of time in a hospital probably feels like that time was an eternity.

Amanda expressed her joy at returning to her old stomping grounds.

She commented that “any time in the hospital feels like forever.” We couldn’t contain our joy when they finally let us go.

Remarks Made On the Web

The new dad’s expressions got a lot of laughs from people all over the world.

Over 6,000 people have shared it, 7,000 have liked it, and 2,000 have commented, making it a viral sensation.

People shared stories from their own lives, and several new dads even said they could relate.

In a similar vein, another dad said, “Dawg, this was me.” Another mother commented, “And this is exactly why when my husband wanted to ‘watch,’ I clamped my knees together and told him if he didn’t get up by my head, I wasn’t going to push!”

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Dying woman says final goodbye to her parrot: The bird’s instant reaction leaves me in tears

Losing our closest friend is never easy. It doesn’t matter whether we are “prepared” for it or not.

The grief that is experienced is also not limited to humans. Animals also have the ability to feel sadness.

Did you know, for example, that parrots are some of the most emotional and intelligent creatures on the planet? When they lose someone they love, they feel a deep sense of sadness.

Parrot Sinbad recently had to go through this with his owner, who he shared his life with for 25 years.

Just like with many animals, Sinbad shared a very strong bond with his owner.

Normally, Sinbad is a very pleasant and upbeat bird, but as his beloved lay on her deathbed, he appeared to understand that the situation was serious and he was rather quiet.

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This was understood as a sign of the tremendous empathy birds tend to feel for their owners.

Parrots can experience depression when they lose a loved one in about the same way that a human would. There are even anti-depressants for birds.

The moment you will soon witness was captured by a dying woman’s daughter. She is getting ready to say goodbye to the world and Sinbad is brought in for a final meeting.

Sinbad clearly just wants to be by his owner’s side and lets her know how much she means to him. And as he sits on her belly, she lets him know just how much she loves him, too.

If you can get through this clip without breaking into tears, you are much stronger than I could ever hope to be.

The bond we share with our pets is one that can’t always be put in words. That’s why video clips like these help us relate to others who love their pets just as much as we love ours. This is one of the sweetest moments I have ever seen, and anyone who has ever had a pet that they really care about can certainly relate to this woman.

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